The Sound of Trombones

... over the course of the centuries

The trombone is defined by its movable slide. This has remained unaltered since the instrument was invented – with the exception of the valve trombone, which almost supplanted the slide trombone in the 19^th century.

The sound, the bore and the musical function of the trombone, however, were all very different over the centuries. Thus in several German orchestras of the 19^th century, the “Leipzig” trombone with its very wide bore became popular (see below), whereas in France, a narrow-bore instrument was preferred, and in Vienna the valve trombone.

Video: The German Romantic trombone – Interview with Ian Bousfield

The trombone in Germany during the Romantic period (19^th century) was completely different from today’s instrument – they are similar only at first glance.

A team comprised of members of the HKB and Empa conducted research into this “Leipzig” trombone (The Sound of Brass, see projekt website). 64 historical trombones by all the legendary makers, from Sattler, Penzel and Kruspe to Heckel were played and measured. Their alloys were also determined and the thickness of their wall measured. Using this data, the instrument maker Egger in Basel built replicas of alto, tenor and tenor-bass trombones (today usually described as bass trombones, a wide-bore instrument in Bb with a valve of a fourth).

To “copy” historical German trombones

Replicas of German trombones by Egger in Basel. From left: Rainer Egger with a tenor bass trombone, Ian Bousfield with a tenor trombone, and Alex Schölkopf with an alto trombone.

A replica of a wind instrument is primarily oriented on the geometry of the originals. But other factors also have a fundamental influence on the playing behaviour of an instrument, from the supports and ornaments to the alloy and the metal-working technology utilised at the time. This in turn has an influence on the player and the sound of the instrument.

The close collaboration between the instrument maker (Rainer Egger, Alex Schölkopf) and the trombonist Ian Bousfield (HKB) resulted in instruments that can meet the highest requirements for both soloists and orchestral musicians. The trombones constructed are suitable for historical performance practice in the music of their time (e.g. Schumann, Brahms, Wagner and Mahler), but are also suitable for other use. The mouthpiece is also very important. Historical mouthpieces can be copied very exactly, and musicians choose a model that suits them today, just like they used to in the 19th century.

Would you like to test these instruments?

The Klingendes Museum Bern and the HKB have several historical German trombones that can be played. The replica of a German tenor trombone by Egger in Basel can also be hired out (it can currently be seen in the exhibition FRESH WIND). For more information, please contact mail@fresh-wind.ch.

The Sound of Brass

Is the sound of a wind instrument influenced by the material it’s made of? But it’s the air that creates the music by making the sound waves, isn’t it?

Such questions have occupied instrument makers time and again over the years. In 1800, Lord Kent had bugles made for the British Army, some of brass, others of pure copper, and compared them. Apparently, those made of copper sounded louder, so these were the ones the Army bought. Charles Mahillon from Belgium had a trumpet constructed out of wood in 1864, and found that it sounded the same as a geometrically identical instrument made of brass.

Today, acousticians do experiments in their labs to find out the impact that materials have on sound. Empa in Dübendorf proved in 2018 that the mass of the instrument wall, the position of the supports soldered into the instrument and the type of alloy all had an impact on the vibration behaviour of the instrument. This influence is small, but perceptible, as musicians also confirmed who played the different instruments.

The sound of a wind instrument is fundamentally determined by the player, the mouthpiece and the geometry of the tube. The material, on the other hand, exerts its main impact on the instrument maker who has to adjust to it, see the following video. But the material clearly also has a secondary impact on the sound of an instrument.